How The Graph Works⁠#

The Graph learns what and how to index Ethereum data based on subgraph descriptions, known as the subgraph manifest. The subgraph description defines the smart contracts of interest for a subgraph, the events in those contracts to pay attention to, and how to map event data to data that The Graph will store in its database.

Once you have written a subgraph manifest, you use the Graph CLI to store the definition in IPFS and tell the indexer to start indexing data for that subgraph.

This diagram gives more detail about the flow of data once a subgraph manifest has been deployed, dealing with Ethereum transactions: